They had only known each other four months before he left, but she’d felt as if they’d known each other their entire lives. Those same emotions returned today, and she was so very glad to have him back. She would enjoy this house party as it was likely that once the Season fully began, she’d return to her place among the wallflowers, and Crisp would once again avoid Society.
While they walked toward the targets, they had been glancing about for sunlight bouncing off a jewel that may have been dropped in the grass. Vanessa really hadn’t expected the ruby to be found out here, but there was no harm in looking.
“I’ll start at one end and you the other,” Crisp suggested.
Vanessa simply nodded and went to the end of the row. They looked behind and around each target until they met in the middle and found nothing.
“Off to the music room?” he asked.
Vanessa gave a nod and took his arm. The muscles tensed beneath her fingers and a little thrill ran through her body at being so close to Crisp. His touch had always made her warm and long for things she hadn’t understood at seventeen and wasn’t certain she understood now. One thing was certain, the deep attraction she’d had for Crisp had never died.
“Tell me about your adventures.”
“They were grand.” He grinned.
“More detail would be appreciated, please.” She blew out a sigh, remembering how he used to withhold information simply to irritate her. Apparently that habit had not changed.
Crisp laughed and told her about Greece and by the time they reached the music room, he had painted a beautiful vision of the first time he saw Athens. Vanessa almost believed she’d been standing right there beside him.
They searched every inch of the music room while he described the antiquities that he’d held or the excavations he had participated in, the food and wine, and of the Mediterranean Sea, and Vanessa grew quite envious.
With a sigh, she settled onto the settee, Crisp beside her.
“If it is not here, nor near where the archery will take place and there is no sundial, where to next?”
Crisp leaned back and folded his arms across his middle, quite comfortable with himself. “Follow the path to Apollo.”
“What other path could there be?”
“He is inThe Iliad,” he suggested.
“The library?” Vanessa asked. “The library leads to the book.”
“To the library.” Crisp pulled himself from the settee and then held his hand out to Vanessa.
She grasped it and stood as her fingers immediately tingled and warmth spread up her arm. “To the library,” she said though it nearly came out as a whisper.
For the longest time, the two of them stood staring at each other. They were so close that her breasts nearly touched his suitcoat and Vanessa so wanted him to kiss her.
The memory of the last time their lips had touched had never left her, but she could not ask, nor would she lean forward and kiss him.
Crisp cleared his throat, blinked and stepped back.
“To the library,” he repeated as he led her from the music room.
Vanessa stifled her disappointment. It had been foolish to hope that he’d kiss her. They’d not seen each other in nine years and couldn’t immediately return to the relationship they had shared when he left. They’d both changed and grown older. Except inside, nothing had altered in her feelings for Crisp.
“This is rather impressive,” Crisp blew out and Vanessa had to agree. Two long walls, floor to ceiling, filled with books.
“I hope they are arranged by topic or by author, or this could take some time.”
Crisp walked to the closest. “Treatises, farming, scientific studies.”
Vanessa started studying the books on a separate wall. “There are works of fiction here.”
Crisp joined her and they read the titles until they came to a selection of mythology. She took downThe Iliadand opened the cover. “We’ve found it.”
She pointed to the drawing just inside the book, which was the Trojan Horse on the road toward Troy. “Would this be the path?”
